| Virtual All Night Horror Movie Marathon 6 (11.01.25 - 11.02.25, 4 movies) |
| Date Viewed | Movie | Director | Notes |
| 11.01.25 | Mr. Vampire | Ricky Lau | Well, Grant was once again nice enough to invite me to his and his Portland friends' all night horror movie marathon. Not that I'm complaining but it was somewhat late notice so unlike last year where I started early, this year I'm starting late. I think they all started at around 9pm and I'm not starting until 11. So once again I'm out of sync with them and not joining the zoom or slack but at least I'll get to watch the movies, or at least that's the plan. I might have to watch the last one tomorrow because it's already late. We'll see. As a quick reminder, Grant and his friends each picked a horror movie for the group to watch, then Grant put them up for us to grab with the titles removed (like "movie-1.mkv") so we go in blind. The first movie of the night is a Hong Kong Kung-Fu movie called Mr. Vampire. I am not well versed in Hong Kong movies at all but imdb trivia tells me this was pretty influential and spawned a wave of supernatural/horror films in its wake. For me, I kept thinking of a movie I know as Thunder Cops. Back in my Alamo days, they used to play an astounding trailer for this movie called Thunder Cops that was maybe the craziest thing I'd seen too date. It was so absolutely batshit insane... I loved it so much. Then one day a fellow Alamo regular tracked down a copy of the film and we all got together to watch it and it was... surprising. The trailer had this serious tone which made it surprising when the imagery kept escalating getting crazier and crazier but the movie was mostly a comedy. Like slapstick comedy, so the tone was all over the place. As I recall, the trailer wound up including footage from another movie entirely which contributed to its whiplash cuts (like there's a bunch of fighting between cops shooting then there's a wave of zombies then there's RC helicoptors chasing a flying decapitated head). I think if I hadn't seen Thunder Cops I'd be really confused by this movie, but instead I'm thinking maybe Thunder Cops (also known as Operation Pink Squad 2) is one of those movies made on the back of Mr. Zombie's success? I don't know. So Mr. Zombie. Um... these guys that run a mortuary (which i think ALREADY have zombies with the yellow script tags on their foreheads just hanging out behind a curtain) do some ceremony where they unearth an old coffin but that coffin holds a vampire who gets out and kills people with his long fingernails who then turn into zombies unless they sleep on glutinous rice... or something. There's also a woman ghost who's sort of a succubus type figure that's chasing one of the guys. Throw in some animal violence and fight scenes and slapstick humor and you've got yourself a movie. I can't pretend to have any sort of cultural context for a movie like this. I barely know where Hong Kong is on a map, but I liked how the zombies jumped rather than walked or ran. I like how they hear you breathe so holding your breath makes them lose track of you. All the supernatural elements basically I thought were pretty cool. This is also the early days of wire work which still feel cool in this context, how the woman ghost glides onto the back of the guys bicycle is pretty cool. I also liked the end fight with the woman ghost and how they portrayed the illusions she was spinning in her opponents' minds. I did not love the comedy stuff. I just don't want it in my kung-fu. I'm not sure what the deal is, like they were scared that having a vampire might seem scary so they felt the need to include like a voodoo doll slap-yourself body-control gag? I also don't know what was going on with that wooman ghost. WHy's she in the movie? I kinda like that in this world spirits are super common like it's no big deal to have eight zombies hanging out in your shop but the whole succubus thing struck me as the first draft of the script coming in at 55 minutes and them needing to pad out the running time. So, kung-fu movies continue to not be my favorite genre, but I'm glad I watched this. I feel like it gives my memory of Thunder Cops a little more context. And... I dunno, that's that. It's already 1:30. I don't want this all-night movie marathon to actually go all night, although I do get an extra hour for daylight savings tonight so let's see how many more I can fit in. |
| 11.01.25 | When a Stranger Calls Back | Fred Walton | What an interesting pick. This is the sequel to Carol Kane's well-known late-70s original famous for the whole "the call is coming from inside the house" shtick. I've seen the original but never saw this sequel. It starts with a protracted introductory scene which plays with the events of the original, which is doubly familiar since Scream and several of its sequels also used the same trope. Although, I have to say, the early-digital ring of a 90s phone does not have the same menace as that of a 70s analog clunker. Kinda funny to try and make this muted pitiful ding-a-ling-a-ling sound ominous. So, I have to say, I don't remember much about the original other than the first 20 minutes and they use the THX sound a couple times and CHarles Durning's private eye, like, walks down the street at one point? In any case I don't think I missed too much context for the sequel. After a babysitter has the kids she was looking after disappear out from under her - this time tormented by a mysterious visitor knocking at the front door - she tries to move on with her life by going to college in Vancouver only to be stalked by someone leaving subtle clues that they have access to her apartment. Her case falls into Carol kane's lap who's... I'm not really sure what her job is per se but she's gone the Linda Hamilton route where she's turned into a self-protection expert. Anyway, she calls in Charles Durning after the cops show little interest in objective evidence that someone has been in this girl's home and it goes from there. Um, imdb trivia tells me this was a Showtime original movie, which in the early 90s didn't immediately mean it sucked. There were several HBO movies in the early 90s that I remember enjoying... one with Rutger Hauer in a prison where everyone has to wear explosive collars that blow up your head if you escape. Classic. But You do see that tv-movie vibe hit here. The cutting's pretty loose, some of the lighting is very suspect, many of the scenes feel slow, there wasn't much budget for more than a few locations or sets. But again I feel like that follows in the footsteps of the first one where Charles Durning walked down that street. I think this movie's biggest flaw is in its choice of antagonist. SPOILERS It's a ventriloquist. Durning works out that the kidnapper can throw his voice, so it must be a ventriloquist. Once he follows that thread, there's only like one ventriloquist in all of Vancouver because they're so fucking lame and tada it turns out to be a creepy guy that paints himself all black for his act in this weird cabaret where the waiters wear tuxes and the waitresses are topless... and the college guys make a show of looking at their fully clothed asses as they walk away. The tits certainly feel early 90s, just there all of a sudden for no reason other than it was 80% of why subscribers paid for Showtime. So while they do some fun stuff by panning the guy's voice in the stereo mix to mimic him throwing his voice, I'm unsold that's what ventriloquists do? I know they're supposed to not move their lips but is throwing your voice like a required skill for the profession? And also, this guy has Peeta levels of camoflage paint skills. He's there singing Someone I Used to Know in the climax of the movie. And also... uh... where are the kids he kidnapped? Are they just gone? I confess to not paying 100% attention 100% of the time so maybe there was a line of dialogue explaining it but... he did kidnap the kids right? Otherwise Durning shoots a guy who's at worst a trespasser? So on a certain level, that being logic, the movie falls flat in several places. And the whole call-inside-the-house thing I think was doone better in Black Christmas anyway so This franchise is not really near and dear to my heart, but I do like Carol Kane and Charles Durning, so I guess it's nice they got paid. Ok, it's 2:18 which is really 3:18. I think I only have time for one more which means I'll have to watch the last mystery movie tomorrow night. Let's see though. What's up next? |
| 11.01.25 | Ghoulies Go to College | John Carle Buechler | Jesus. I saw the first Ghoulies at a sleep-over when I was a kid. It was the era of Gremlins knock offs; I think Ghoulies was one of the first and as such absolutely conjured out of twenty bucks out of Charles Band's wallet and two weekends to make a terrible movie that was 90% poster. Even as a kid who loved Gremlins and Critters and The Gate (I don't think I saw Munchies), I remember not thinking much of Ghoulies. So let's watch the third one where they go to college! This is some bullshit. I watched this movie feeling the same shame that Kevin McCarthy must've felt being in it. But you know what... once past the immense disappointment of realizing one of these four mystery movies is fucking Ghoulies Go to College, you could try to embrace it and enjoy the zany college silliness that the stupid puppets reverse-flush into. I tried. I don't think it worked, but I tried. I did recognize one kid from Pump Up the Volume... which is weird. I looked it up and that movie came out a month before this movie. That makes me feel weird because I think of Pump Up the Volume as a total 90s movie but this feels like the dying breath of 80s-ness eschewing in the next decade. I guess they're both right on the edge. I usually think of the 90s arriving fully formed in 91... perhaps as a rejection of everything this movie seems to celebrate. I guess I should summarize the plot. A Ghoulish Tales comic winds up in the wall of a frat bathroom and I guess reading the comic aloud summons them from the ceremonial toilet but the frat is like the prank frat that pulls a lot of pranks so when the wise-cracking slimy foam-latex ghoulies (who talk? I didn't remember that) trash both frat houses it escalates a rivalry between the prank frat and the preppy frat. And that's kinda it. The main prankster guy wants to get his girl back because she broke up with him and started dating a preppy loser asshole, and Kevin McCarthy goes completely off the deep end and controls the Ghoulies to destroy the pranking frat, and there's a bumbling security guy and the fat guy tries to eat eight pieces of pizza at once but that's kinda it. The cartoonish score really didn't help. So, I know the ghoulies kill people in this movie, but this is more of a T&A college movie than a horror movie. It reminded me more of Ski Patrol or Police Academy 6 than Gremlins 2 or Bride of Chucky. I mean the movie ends with the main guy yelling "Let's party!" It's a college movie I didn't ask for or particularly want, but it's a college movie I stayed up late to watch. It's 4am which is really 5am. I probably could power through this last movie but I hate going to bed after it's light out so I'll have to get to the last one tomorrow night. Maybe next year I'll be able to follow along with everyone else. |
| 11.02.25 | WNUF Halloween Special | James Branscome, Shawn Jones, Chris LaMartina | It's a real shame I couldn't stay up to watch this last night. It's a perfect pick for a last-slot in a Halloween marathon. I've been trying to remember where I'd heard of this before... I know I haven't seen it but someone somewhere I think told me about it because as soon as the movie started playing I knew what it was. In any case, this was a real fun way to wrap up the series! This is a found footage horror comedy fake vhs tape of a regional tv station's halloween night of programming. It starts off with local news then gets to the titular special where a local news guy investigates a local house that's supposedly haunted after a ouija-board related killing. What the movie's really about is farming nostalgia for any kid who stayed up late watching tv in the 80s or early 90s. There are a ton of fake commercials (arguably too many toward the end) for all the things you remember: local stores, 900 numbers, rock compilations, demolition derbies, you name it. They also nail the tone of local pre-globalization tv stations very well in a more-real-than-real way that probably never actually existed. Plus I love the commitment to the bit where there are no credits and no title cards. It just starts up like a VHS tape you might've found and ends like a home-recorded tape might end. There is a bit of fast-forwarding which I'm of two minds about. On the one hand it supposes that I'm watching someone else watch this tape? which doesn't make a lot of sense? But on the other, I appreciate where after the same commercial comes on for the third time I don't have to sit through it again. I think I might've rather had a rough cut with tracking issues where the person that recorded the tape paused during the commercials. I recognize that that's a very minor nitpick but I also think the audience for this movie is all about these minor meticulous details. Like it's clear the filmmakers duped their output several times to degrade their image and make it feel like real VHS artifacting rather that some digital filter which I really appreciate. I certainly had tapes similar to this growing up so I know what they were going for and think they nailed it. It might also help that from 89 on I was watching tv and cable in Maryland. I don't think we got Baltimore feeds so it was never WNUV but certainly our local news feeds did come from DC so I'd see these types of mid-atlantic township names all over. My town had a road named Opposumtown Pike which would be hard to make up. If I was to offer some criticisms, I do think they throw to commercial way too much. I get it, gotta keep the movie moving, but especially at the end when it shifts toward more of a Blair Witch vibe to try and build suspense there's just too many commercials. News segments were more than 90 seconds between commercials you know? I also thought it could've actually veered a little tiny bit more into horror with the main segment, kind of like how Kentucky Fried Movie lets its feature attraction Enter the Dragon spoof have its own reel relatively unbroken. Did we watch another shot-on-vhs movie for this marathon last year? In any case, I think the actual Halloween Special segment of the movie, if given a little more breathing room, could deliver an actual thrill. But that's about it. For the most part I really liked it. I liked it enough to go buy a copy along with its sequel so I can check that out sometime. Mostly I'm glad this popped up so I could see it. Like I said, I feel like someone told me this existed at some point but it was not on my radar or list of movies to watch or anything so this was great. And that's that. Again, maybe next year I'll actually be in sync with everyone else and be able to join the zoom call and enjoy with everyone else as intended, but even in this out-of-sync spin-off I still had a fun time and thanks to Grant and Sara for thinking of including me! |
